Soldado spares Real blushes

Roberto Soldado's late goal salvaged Real Madrid a 2-1 win over Olympiakos.

It looked like Real would stroll to victory when Raul wrote himself into the record books with his 50th Champions League goal with just five minutes on the clock.

The goal meant the 28-year-old became the top scorer in European Cup history, surpassing another Real legend, Alfredo di Stefano.

However, the hosts were pegged back by a magnificent long-range strike from Pantelis Kafes and looked set for a night of frustration until Soldado made himself a hero four minutes from time.

Real started much the stronger and Julio Baptista saw an early effort saved after being played in by a cute Guti back-heel, while Ronaldo almost latched on to Robinho's cut-back but was crowded out at the last.

The reprieve was only temporary, though, and the early pressure told on five minutes when Raul netted his landmark goal.

The Real skipper got ahead of Giorgios Anatolakis to latch on to Beckham's inviting whipped cross and flashed a near-post header past Antonis Nikopolidis.

The England skipper, who enjoyed a hugely impressive night, almost got on the scoresheet himself shortly afterwards but saw a trademark free-kick parried away after Baptista had been impeded on the edge of the box.

Beckham was back in the thick of the action on the half hour mark, squaring intelligently for Baptista whose accurate shot seemed destined for the corner until Nikopolidis went full length to turn it wide.

Perhaps the pick of Beckham's first-half contribution was a sublime floated through ball that released Robinho, but, with a clear sight of goal, the former Santos starlet could not find a finish to match.

The Brazilian starlet created a chance of his own shortly afterwards with some quick feet that baffled Dmitris Mavrogenidis, but was denied by a fine recovery tackle from the Greek defender who injured himself as he stretched to knock the ball out for a corner.

From the resulting set-piece Nikopolidis was tested again by Beckham from distance, but once again proved his equal.

Having been so dominant in the first period the Santiago Bernabeu was stunned into silence just three minutes after the restart when Olympiakos hauled themselves back on terms with a fabulous long-range strike.

There seemed little danger when Kafes picked the ball up 30 yards from goal, but the midfielder unleashed a rasping drive that flew past Iker Casillas and bounced in off his near post, although no blame could be attached to the keeper such was the ferocity and accuracy of the drive.

Understandably, given it was the visitors' first effort of note, Real were rocked by the goal and took a while to reassert themselves on proceedings as the Greeks got a foothold.

Robinho really should have edged Real back ahead on the hour mark but somehow contrived to head Roberto Carlos' inch-perfect cross over from no more than six yards.

Baptista then did his best to spare his compatriot's blushes by producing an equally glaring headed miss from another superlative Beckham delivery.

'The Beast' thought he had made amends for his earlier miss after getting up well to win a Beckham corner, but saw a much better header thump off the bar and away to safety.

With frustration levels audibly growing by the minute, Real found themselves an unlikely hero in Soldado.

It came as no surprise that Beckham was the source with another inviting cross from the right arrowing on to the youngster's head, and, although Nikopolidis did well to parry away his first effort, Soldado bundled the rebound over the line with his head to spark a huge sigh of relief from the home fans.

Some of the gloss was taken off Real's win in the closing stages when Sergio Ramos's received the second red card of his fledgling Real career after clashing with substitute Giannakis Okkas, but the Primera titans will be more concerned at having got their European campaign off and running following their 3-0 humbling at Lyon last time out.

Click here for player ratings

Real Madrid	Team Statistics	Olympiakos
2	Goals	1
1	1st Half Goals	0
10	Shots on Target	4
10	Shots off Target	3
6	Blocked Shots	2
16	Corners	5
20	Fouls	21
4	Offsides	0
2	Yellow Cards	4
1	Red Cards	0
79.4	Passing Success	72.3
29	Tackles	23
79.3	Tackles Success	82.6
61.9	Possession	38.1
49.9	Territorial Advantage	50.1